Erna says festival bills like this are great for creativity, and he reveals that when the grueling pace of life on the road takes its toll, being on a bill with other great bands inspires him. “[I've been] really fulfilled at times and really dark at other times. The good part about being dark is, in a really weird way, beautiful art can come from it sometimes,” says Erna. “There have been times where I’ve given up wanting to even be on the road anymore. That’s the sad truth for me. I get to a place where I’m just tired. My body is exhausted, my mind is tired, my voice is tired. You want to be home. You pull out your strength from these other bands and the inspiration of the songs and the music. That’s what we’re all there for, and the fans play a big roll in that. They’re there to feed us energy. We need every ounce of that.”

DeJesus says another great thing about Uproar is the amount of pure talent on this year’s bill and he says he would hope that concertgoers would take every opportunity to catch as many bands as possible. “If you’re on this thing, you’re making some noise,” says DeJesus. “We were just on tour with In This Moment and Shinedown. It’s an honor to watch them play. Redlight King is making a lot of noise. You never know who’s going to come up and be the next thing. People have to come out and try to find music early. You can’t just jump on the bandwagon late. This show is for the fans from top-to-bottom.”

While Brent Smith admits that rock and roll may not be the flavor of the month right now, he says that’s not something that matters to the typical Uproar Festival attendee. He explains, “Rock ‘n’ roll is not a genre of music. It’s a way of life for a lot of people. You cannot, on any level, take away the power or passion from a fan who’s inspired and basically gets out of bed in the morning because of the awe-inspiring feeling of what rock ‘n’ roll does to them on a daily basis. At the end of the day, you can be inspired by a lot of different genres of music, but it will never stray too far from drums, bass, guitar, badass vocals, and a killer song. That’s the beauty of rock ‘n’ roll. It ain’t going anywhere.”

Erna agrees, adding, “We’re not going away. You’re not going to kill it. If you don’t love it, that’s fine. Whatever feeds you those vibrations and gets you off your feet is where you need to be. Rock music is our art. We play our instruments, sing our notes, break cymbals, and smash guitars. That’s the beauty of what we do.”

Catch the full beauty of the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival continuing today in Little Rock, with shows this coming week in St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Chicago, Holmdel, and Syracuse.